The disclosure is related to glass enclosures, including windows, cover plates, and substrates for electronic devices. More particularly, the disclosure relates to crack- and scratch-resistant enclosures.
Glass is being designed into electronic devices, such as telephones, and entertainment devices, such as games, music players and the like, and information terminal (IT) devices, such as laptop computers. A predominant cause of breakage of cover glass in mobile devices is point contact or sharp impact. The solution for this problem has been to provide a bezel or similar protective structure to hold and protect the glass from such impacts. In particular, the bezel provides protection from impact on the edge of the glass. The edge of the cover glass is most vulnerable to fragmentation by direct impact. Incorporation of the bezel limits the use of glass to flat pieces in the device and prevents utilization of designs that exploit the crystal-like appearance of glass.